There will be several posts today. It is catch up time, and I’ll link each one back to this first one. You may have thought that THE THINGS had already left, but far from it – they have continued to cause madness and mayhem as we travelled from place to place. The time will soon come for them to move on, so this cautionary tale (and the ones that follow) are indications of what to expect for the next host or hostess. I had hoped that a visit to our cultural and historical country would have given them a chance to mature, however, this first post will probably convince you that that is just NOT going to happen…..

So, it is a while since we travelled to South Wales. It was a teaching trip at Busy Bees in Newport, and the last place I would have wanted them to come as I knew there would be too many opportunities for The Things to get lost. Sadly, they have obviously learnt a thing or two on their travels, and I had not sooner removed my coat that to find…..

….. Two little Things trying to get out of my pocket!

What a shock for 14 lovely ladies! It was meant to be a workshop on the embellisher, but as you will see, once they saw the colour there was no keeping the Things under control, and most of the time was spent chasing them around the room.

What a squeal went up when they saw these colours, they thought it matched their hair, and wanted a coat. I can see they need some colour lessons!

Frankly, I think this went well with their hair, but they were more interested in hiding underneath it. Thing One disappeared really quickly

It wasn’t long before they found this one. Thing Two thought it made them invisible. Thank goodness for turquoise hair!

At coffee time they found this flower! They wanted it for a buttonhole…….. We had to drag them away.

They were only left alone for a minute. Off they went again – this time find some pretty fibres. It took us ages to untangle them,

and, undaunted, they just went off to find some more mischief.

We had hoped that they would take an afternoon nap, but no such luck. They were desperate for a ‘go’, however I feel that they are too young to play with needles

So, another tangling seemed to be the order of the day!

They soon found more

More squeals announced that they had found another ‘buttonhole’

Then, just for a moment, they went quiet, and we thought they had gone to sleep!

We were wrong! Off they went to play roly poly on another partly made cushion

but this was once again changed for some more quick tangling.

Finally, though, something took their eye, and all was peace until they saw something really unexpected out of the corner of the eyes

Yes, I’m pounding the motorways again today. M3, M25 and M1. Travelling north towards the snow…. Hopefully we won’t meet, but you never know. I’m off to Create and Craft TV again, so if you are free tomorrow these are the details.

Wednesday 4th April 2012 at 10am and 4pm UK time

I hope you will join me, but don’t forget that all programmes are transmitted LIVE, and will change to another if all stock is sold. Find it on the internet here, where you watch it live. To watch it on TV tune into one of the following channels.

Sky 671 | Freeview 36 | Freesat 813

If you are wondering what I mean by ‘again’, take a look at the photograph and follow the link for a few more details.

I’m hoping that the Things will appear on C&C! Watch this space if you can’t watch TV……

Sharon Boggon’s challenge begins tomorrow. It isn’t too late to sign up if you would like to take part. I’ve decided that I’ll ‘jog’ along with it as it will be good to have a little casual hand-stitching on hand to take around with me. I’ve prepared a surface, and here it is, all ready for the first few stitches. (You can follow the progress of this piece here)

I’ve prepared it by applying bits and pieces with the embellisher, and I have to admit that they have been very badly applied! Students will tell you that I am always nagging them to properly integrate their elements, but I decided to just apply them lightly and further manipulate them with stitching. Of course, the joke will come if this is totally unsuitable for the first exercise, but I’m sure it will be suitable for something in the end. If you are taking part leave a comment and I’ll add you to the TAST page here.

There are creative challenges all over the internet at the moment. I wonder how many will start with good intentions and fail miserable to complete it. Well, I give you notice that I may be one of them with this challenge! I’m not planning on giving up, but if I get too busy it will have to take a back seat.

Like this:

Well, yesterday came and went. I enjoyed it, and it seemed to go well. However, instead of doing 2 hours on TV they asked if I could do an extra one too, so it was a very late and long journey home.

I’m doing everything slowly today, so this is all I can manage today. If you missed it there is the smallest of excerpts online, and you can find a link to it here. Thanks to all of you that either emailed me or the show. I’ll be answering you all very soon.

It’s a machine that looks like a sewing machine. However, instead of having a needle with a hole, and using thread to combine or decorate fabrics, it has a collection of needles with barbs. These work up and down to create new surfaces. No thread is involved, and it is the easiest of machines to use, allowing creativity to flourish, even in those who didn’t know they had any!

I waited a long time for my machine. They were available in the USA long before they arrived here in the UK, so I had time to think about what I could do when I finally owned one. Nuvofelt is the result of some of that thinking time.

This piece is actually featured on the cover of the book. It is made with the sheerest of sheer chiffon (the piece I used was hand dyed) with fine hand dyed viscose fibres. It’s a time consuming process, but well worth the effort as the resulting fabric can be used for clothing or scarves etc. I sometimes teach workshops on the subject, so if you want to learn…….

Moo Cards etc

I've been using Moo for some time for my mini business cards. I can highly recommend the quality, and also the speed of delivery. The new card packs that I will shortly be writing about are also being printed there. If you can make use of them take a look here.

InLinkz

Dark Globe Artist Diversity Award 2011

Another favourite quote

Studios, whether musical or visual are places where raw, received information is processed, shaped and created.
Michael Brennand Wood